Is James Harden the best defender on the team? lol... check these stats out.

Harden's horrible on defense. But the opposing PER stat isn't out of whack either. PER is heavily based on usage. And there are very few high usage SGs in the NBA. Which lessens the impact of Harden's defense.

Basically this is the issue with many is equating defense across all positions as the same. When it's not. As the NBA is currently structured, PG defense and interior defense are more important than others. If we had, say, Spencer Hawes at center and Iguodala at SG in place of Harden and Howard, our defense would be quite a bit worse. But Harden's defensive liabilities are usually not exploited simply due to lack of usage by opposing SGs.

There does exist the question of whether or not we can hide Harden in the playoffs. OKC will probably use Westbrook and Jackson, Warriors have Klay/Iggy, Clippers have Reddick who already burned Harden before, Portland has Mathews who if he keeps up his play will be really dangerous. Spurs have Manu/Belineli who are dangerous. But for the regular season, Harden's lack of defense is probably overstated.

 

Fear the Bearrdddddddddddddddd!!!

Back to the stats though, PG and PF are deeper positions than SG and Center and a lot of our players switch a lot so take these with a grain of salt.

 

I agree... It is even obvious that we don't have an answer for any good PG or. PF, we usually pray they have an off night shooting.

Harden on defense will be fixed in playoff time only

 

Not putting any blame, brings up good discussion.

Thanks.

 

I guess if playing 5 feet from your man and not putting a hand up means your a good defender- then Harden is a BEAST!!!

 

nah, there needs to be stat that compares how the pg/sg etc does compared to their average. Based on these stats cp3 going for 25 on Lin/Bev is worse than Thabo, JJ Redick going for 20 on Harden...but clearly the latter is worse.

 

lmao. in your 1 yo your mum help wipe ya ass clean and in stat it shows you have a pretty shiny bum all the time, doesnt mean you dont need diaper anymore.

 

The difference is easily explainable simply because average league strength at SG is probably the weakest of all 5 positions, and Harden is the best SG in the league.

Also, why do you say our weakest production is at PG and PF when the differential for SF is the same as PG? Sorry, nice try.

All these stats show is that we have stars playing at SG and C, and we have approximately league average players playing at PG, SF and PF. Which we already knew.

 

Harden is a pretty good on the ball defender. His issues arise when he has to chase people who do not have the ball.

 

That's...that's not even remotely close to how those numbers should be used.

 

Harden defensively is really good in these areas; P&R ball handler, post up and fighting through screens. Harden defensively is not so good in isolation and spot up situations. The Rockets in general have difficulty in those two areas because the defensive rotations are not solid yet. The team covers for Harden at times, switching him to the least dangerous wing. However the switch may be to keep Harden offensively fresh.

 

Dpoty

 

Lol

Really overpaid the Center Position,Asik could at least give you the Same and more